New book by Dr Allen Frances

Dr Allen Frances has a new book out, titled
Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062229257
interviewed on Lateline:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3763502.htm

The two faces of Lateline

How ironic. Lateline on the ABC last night featured an interview with Professor Patrick McGorry. He has in the past expressed his concern, as a professional mental health doctor, for the welfare of asylum-seekers imprisoned in detention centres for long periods of time, and he was again expressing such concerns last night. A less likable aspect of the professor is his insistent advocacy of routine and widespread psychiatric intervention into the lives of young people who show what could controversially be interpreted as the first signs of psychosis, including the definite possibility use of controversial neuroleptic drugs such as Seroquel/Quetiapine. Prof McGorry has been the subject of widespread and effective opposition on this front from other mental health professionals. I thought last night's interview on Lateline gave the professor a sympathetic run, with an absence of questions about psychiatric drug interventions and their negative effects. In stark contrast, apparently tonight Lateline will be running an exclusive story about the serious misuse of this same class of stupefying and damaging psychiatric drugs in nursing homes. I really do wonder whether there is a wilful lack of attention going on a the ABC. It is politically easy to question the questionable use of questionable drugs, except when a charismatic public figure says they are completely necessary. 

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/

I want an assurance from someone in the government that any asylum-seekers who develop mental illness or apparent mental illness while detained overseas will not be inappropriately or routinely prescribed questionable drugs, and will not be included in any trials of interventions of such a nature. 

Tonight's story on Lateline looks like it will be powerful stuff, but I doubt that it will be as big as the expose of the anti-anxiety psychiatric drug Xanax that was on Seven's Sunday Night last month:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/transcripts/article/-/14243425/xanax/

Guardian reports that study finds drugs should not be first option

The Guardian newspaper yesterday published an article reporting the findings of a study which apparently found that drugs should not be the first option for treating young people thought to be at risk of developing a psychotic mental illness such as schizophrenia, because "only a tenth will go on to develop more serious conditions" and ""benign" psychological treatments, including Cognitive Therapy (CT), were effective in reducing the severity of psychotic experiences". So I've got to wonder why some Australian psychiatrists have been so enthused about trialling the pills. I guess this should be good news for psychologists and bad news for psychiatrists and drug companies. But didn't the Gillard Government bring in a program of mental health reforms that gave lots of funding for psychiatry at the expense of psychological treatment? Nice one, Julia! You're a one-woman-skill-shortage.

Drugs not best option for people at risk of psychosis, study warns. Guardian. April 6th 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/06/drugs-psychosis-schizophrenia-counselling?CMP=twt_fd

Words of wisdom about mental health from Jon Jureidini on the radio

I so much love the concept of the "unexplanation" in relation to mental illness labels which child psychiatrist Prof. Jon Jureidini has created and used in his talk which was recently broadcast on ABC radio, on the radio show All in the Mind on Radio National 810am. Prof. Jureidini cites depression and most mental health labels as "unexplanations", and I'd certainly agree with him on that point. We should never be satisfied with "unexplanations" from doctors or psychiatrists or psychologists or counsellors. We deserve so much more from highly paid and highly educated professionals who wield a lot of power in our society.

Prof. Jureidini is one of many critics (including myself) of Prof. Patrick McGorry who has had a great level of influence on federal government mental health policy, particularly under the Gillard Government, and this has concerned many people. Many thanks to Natasha Mitchell and the ABC's Radio National for giving airtime in two different radio shows to rational and science-based critics of "big pharma" such as Prof. Jureidini and the multi-award-winning Australian health journalist and author Ray Moynihan.

Juredini, Jon (2011) Sick, Screwed Up or Just Lazy? - 2011 Adelaide Festival of Ideas. All in the Mind. ABC Radio National. 22 October 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2011/3340004.htm

Moynihan, Ray (2011) A noble cause. Background Briefing. October 16th 2011.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2011/3337618.htm

Healthy Skepticism.
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/global